SU @ Cornell Pregame

[Jim Hyla]

To start the discussion I thought this article from today's Syracuse Post-Standard was interesting.

[upperdeck]

I know the Syracuse fans arent expecting it to be all that close a game.. Cu needs to play a complete game which they have struggled to do all year..

[Chris '03]

[quote upperdeck]I know the Syracuse fans arent expecting it to be all that close a game.. Cu needs to play a complete game which they have struggled to do all year..[/quote]

They thought the same in 2000... what's the weather forecast? We all know lax was designed to be played in a climate controlled dome.

[Josh '99]

[quote Chris '03][quote upperdeck]I know the Syracuse fans arent expecting it to be all that close a game.. Cu needs to play a complete game which they have struggled to do all year..[/quote]

They thought the same in 2000... what's the weather forecast? We all know lax was designed to be played in a climate controlled dome.[/quote]Sunny, unfortunately.  Too bad the game won't be over the weekend, when the forecast predicts a mixture of rain and snow.

Edit:  I'm not sold on Syracuse.  It seems like they've beaten up on a lot of mediocre teams (Villanova, Binghamton, Hobart, Loyola, Princeton) and played one-goal games with all four of the good teams on their schedule (Army, Virginia, Georgetown, Hopkins), winning three of them including two in overtime.  That tells me that they're very much on par with those teams in ability, but not significantly better.  They've managed to comfortably win games that they should win (unlike Hopkins), but they haven't blown anybody good off the field and while they may win at Schoellkopf I expect another close game.

[scoop85]

[quote Josh '99][quote Chris '03][quote upperdeck]I know the Syracuse fans arent expecting it to be all that close a game.. Cu needs to play a complete game which they have struggled to do all year..[/quote]

They thought the same in 2000... what's the weather forecast? We all know lax was designed to be played in a climate controlled dome.[/quote]Sunny, unfortunately.  Too bad the game won't be over the weekend, when the forecast predicts a mixture of rain and snow.

Edit:  I'm not sold on Syracuse.  It seems like they've beaten up on a lot of mediocre teams (Villanova, Binghamton, Hobart, Loyola, Princeton) and played one-goal games with all four of the good teams on their schedule (Army, Virginia, Georgetown, Hopkins), winning three of them including two in overtime.  That tells me that they're very much on par with those teams in ability, but not significantly better.  They've managed to comfortably win games that they should win (unlike Hopkins), but they haven't blown anybody good off the field and while they may win at Schoellkopf I expect another close game.[/quote]

I see this game much the same way.  A one or two goal margin, with either team equally capable of winning.

[upperdeck]

Having watched both teams several times the biggest difference is that cornell has had periods of very sloppy play that mared otherwise good efforts.. In addition SU has played they best at home, and has controlled the faceoffs in those games,

CU can win but they need to stop those 5-10 min periods of mistakes, that let a team like Harvard back into the game.

[David Harding]

Brain Delaney of the The Ithaca Journal writes about today's game from the Syracuse and Cornell perspectives.  

"We have a lot of respect for Cornell, they're one of the only teams that tries to run up and down with us, and the past couple of years have been great games to watch," Nims said. "Last year came down to the wire in favor of them, and I like seeing them every year because they run with us and they've got a great program."

"We've played in stretches where I feel we can beat the best, but we've also played in stretches when I feel anybody can come out and beat us," Tambroni said. "I think it's just going to be which team shows up and how long that stretch is going to be, for good or for bad."

[ithacat]

Some stats I'll be watching:

EMOs: SU converts on 46% of theirs; Cornell limits their opponents to a 26% conversion rate.

Ground balls: SU only misses on 42% of the GBs; Cornell picks up GBs at a 56% rate.

Faceoffs: SU wins 62%; Cornell wins 59%.

Clears: SU disrupts 25% of their opponents' attempts; Cornell fails on 14% of their opportunities.

We'll see who gets closest to their numbers.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote David Harding]Brain Delaney of the The Ithaca Journal writes about today's game from the Syracuse and Cornell perspectives.  [/quote]

My two keys, first from the Cornell article:

But Seibald was quick to put tonight's game into perspective for the Big Red's netminder, who won the position late in the preseason and has followed up with sold efforts in recent wins over Penn and Harvard.

"He may not say much, but it definitely has an importance because it's a big game for the team," he said. "I don't know if it's a bigger game for him because he's got some buddies he used to play with, but I know he's going to be extra-focused. He knows it's an important game for the team."

Then from the SU article:

Syracuse outshot the Tigers 41-23, earned a 40-20 advantage in ground balls and won 15 of 22 faceoffs behind one of the nation's best X-men, Danny Brennan.

If they control faceoffs and we have any problem in goal, it will be a long night. A prior post talked about SU winning their good team games by 1, and beating up on mediocre ones. Well, that's about what we've done. Something has to give.

[Josh '99]

[quote Jim Hyla]A prior post talked about SU winning their good team games by 1, and beating up on mediocre ones. Well, that's about what we've done. Something has to give.[/quote]That's a fair point.  That suggests a fairly even game to me.

[Al DeFlorio]

RedCast has just removed its link for the game and changed the start time of the webcast to 6:40.  Surprise.

[Edit: start time now listed as 6:50.

The genii at ICS told me to re-log and the game would be on.  Yeah, right.]

[TimV]

Time Warner Capital region isn't carrying the game tonight.  They're showing Yale at Albany.  Sheesh- two teams with 6 wins between 'em.::wtf::

[DeltaOne81]

Now 7:00 PM.

I appreciate that there's someone there clearly watching this situation and updating the time - that's a plus. But you'd think there success rate would be a bit higher.

[Chris '03]

[quote TimV]Time Warner Capital region isn't carrying the game tonight.  They're showing Yale at Albany.  Sheesh- two teams with 6 wins between 'em.::wtf::[/quote]

Your point?

[Chris '03]

redcast up for me now. the feed is a gray box with no sound... but it's a feed.